Chapter 34

MIKOTO UCHIHA

The Uchiha clan matriarch walked down the stairs towards the basement hidden underneath the Naka Shrine, her heart pounding in her chest as she entered the ancient-looking tunnel, lit only by widely spaced fire lamps.

Fugaku had called her to come here. Before today, she had never heard of this secret entrance, and she had an inkling what this was all about.

She stepped down from the last stairs and saw him standing there in front of what seemed to be a sealed space. She walked up to him, her steps measured as he stood there looking at the sealed space infront of him.

Unlike the rest of the cave, this area had seals around it. Seals that she could barely understand yet seemed rather ancient. Four candles illuminated an ancient-looking stone tablet. Kanji had been inscribed into it, and though she could not be sure, she was sure that the tablet was very ancient.

Yet she could not make out the texts.

"This tablet's existence has been a secret that has been passed down from one clan leader to the next, ever since the inception of the clan," he began, and his words made her still as she realized that her earlier conjecture was right.

"I cannot read them," she remarked, and he nodded, until suddenly she felt a flare of chakra and looked up and saw his irises turn red as his eyes morphed into his Sharingan, which glew eerily in the light.

She closed her eyes and pushed chakra into her own eyes. She felt the cave clear up. The details became sharper, and then, as she looked at the stone tablet. The inscribed words finally began to make sense.

As she read over the tablet, she had known of parts of it, like the powers of the Mangekyo. Yet the rest was a shock to her, the power of eternal Mangekyo and the method of obtaining it, the secrets of their origin followed by the story origin of chakra.

"Many believe that it after reading this very tablet with his eyes that Madara Uchiha began to change, leaving the village he had built to pursue a dream of a more peaceful world" Fugaky answered.

"This tablet contains the secrets of our clan, secrets that have been passed down from one clan leader to the next, and today I called you here to do my duty as the current leader," he began as he looked towards her.

She stilled at his words as he lowered her gaze.

"So, it is true. You have been chosen to go with Tsunade-sama," she ventured. The Hokage was set to choose a special unit to go to Ame to confront this newly arisen Madara, or Ohashi, as they suspected.

"Yes, a team has been selected. And I am a part of it," he began, and she immediately tried to cut in.

"But I volunteered the fact that he came to rescue me, speaks that he may have at least some reca…" but she was cut short.

"We cannot take that risk, Mikoto. Tsunade-sama has decided to form a highly specialized team for this mission. She will be leading it herself, and the other two shinobi are Minato and Lord Orochimaru," he answered.

"Orochimaru-sama?" she questioned. Hadn't the man left the village to pursue his interest in medicine and some more obscure aspects of chakra and human physiology?

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru was nominated and has accepted this responsibility. We are set to leave in a week," he answered as he turned towards the tablet once again.

"I brought you here today to prepare you for the worst-case scenario. If I were to fall in battle, I want you to lead the clan as regent until he comes of age," he told her, and she had reasoned out as much.

"You cannot be serious, with four kage level shinobi…" but he cut her off as he shook her head and turned to face her.

"We went over the details you and Jiraiya-sama provided about your confrontation with him, and I have reason to believe that in both of those battles, he was still not accustomed to his prowess. And the skills he showed with the use of gunbai and his taijutsu show that we would be fools to underestimate him," he remarked.

"Ohashi was always strong, and now I believe that his skillset has been further expanded through the tutelage of the man whose prowess held no equal but one," and her eyes widened as she looked up at him, as she gasped.

"You cannot mean…"

Yet he nodded as he finished her sentence.

"I believe that the man we are about to face is indeed Ohashi, Ohashi whose will and mind has been perverted by none other than Madara Uchiha."

"Oh God!" she gasped as she brought her face to cover her mouth, as she questioned.

"But how?"

She felt his chakra shift as his red eyes morphed once more, the three tomoe vanishing as a rather distinctive pattern appeared.

"The most probable answer lies infront of you," and she realized his intentions and pushed chakra into her own eyes. A jolt of pain rippled through her, and when she opened them once again, she could finally see another piece of text inscribed into the tablet, text that she had always considered to be a legend.

Named after the eighth pair of children of gods, they were the techniques whose names had been passed through legends. Techniques that could alter the very fate of a person and the world, Izanagi and Izanami.

0000

KONAN

Konan stood along with her two teammates as they waited for the man who now ruled over their village. The atmosphere in the village was tense; this shinobi, whoever he was, had singlehandedly slain all the foreign shinobi roaming their lands, a move which had made his takeover relatively popular.

Yet all was not well. A new threat was beginning to take form, the slaughter of their shinobi and their recent losses at the hand of Konoha had enraged Iwa, and there were rumors that the Tsuchikage planned to mount an attack on their village himself.

Ame's forces were tense, yet things were not hopeless, for though controversial, none in the village could doubt the prowess of this grey haired shinobi. And some, even amongst the Akatsuki, had voiced their concerns over the actions they were about to undertake.

Konoha had emerged from the war relatively victorious. Their forces had defeated both Iwa and Kumo in the field and were now in the driving seat of this conflict.

And now Ame had allied themselves with them, well, not Ame. But the Akatsuki had.

The rest of the group stood behind them at a distance. And she could feel their nervousness, and then she felt it.

Her eyes widened as she felt her heart begin to race as she felt that chakra, its presence thick and powerful enough to send shivers down her spine.

"He is here," she spoke up, and Nagato and Yahiko tensed up as well as they saw a sole figure approaching them from a distance.

One man was walking towards a group of nearly fifty shinobi, and yet it was them the fifty, who were feeling the pressure. His chakra reserves were massive, yet in truth, it was the density and sharpness of his chakra that had them on edge. It spoke of decades and decades of training.

His wet hair fell down and covered half his face. His iconic black cloak was draped over him, concealing his body. A black bandage covered his eyes. As he walked towards them, the sound of his steps seemed to her like the literal thrum of war.

He stopped infront of them, and looked up, and though the black cloth covered his eyes, she could feel his gaze piercing through them, scrutinizing them, looking into their very soul.

"I had come here in hopes of a peaceful negotiation with you and your group," he began and all three of them tensed as she quickly placed her hands on the backs of Nagato and Yahiko.

"Yet it seems you chose to invite some rather unsavory guests to our discussion."

And then, before she could react, she felt her body vanish. Her feet left the ground until they retouched the ground once more, and she found herself along with Yahiko and Nagato nearly half a mile away from the silver-haired man, who was now trapped in a purple cell.

A three-pronged kunai, was there right infront of them, stuck into the ground. A kunai identical to the one they had left there.

"…..PHOENIX FLAME FORMATION!" she heard the shout, of the three masked ANBU as the purple barrier erupted around him.

Yahiko and Nagato began to huff, and she didn't realize that her own breathing had become labored from the sheer pressure emanated by this silver haired shinobi's presence.

"Huhhh…..huhhhh….. he is strong. Very strong!" Yahiko spoke up as he straightened as they both stepped forward and saw four shinobi appear right where they had stood seconds ago.

"Yes, but so are they. We have no option but to trust them, that they will prevail," she replied.

And she doubted anyone in the entire continent could recognize the four Konoha shinobi standing there.

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MINATO NAMIKAZE

"He is here," Tsuande-sama muttered from the side, as all four of them stood, suppressing their presence using the special seals him and Kushina had made in the past week. Yet as he listened to the silver haired shinobi speak to the trio from Ame, he realized that the seals had failed.

"He knows," and in an instant, he made the tiger handseal, and the four ANBU behind him were teleported to the four markers he had placed earlier, and then the trio from Ame was moved as the ANBU erected the barrier.

Then all four of them vanished, as they appeared inside the barrier, the silver haired shinobi hadn't tried to move and his chakra spoke of no apprehension at their presence.

"Konoha, huh. I should have guessed as much," the silver haired shinobi uttered and Tsunade-sama was the first to step forward, and he didn't miss the frown on her face as her eyes scrutinized the person standing in front of them critically.

"There is no need for that mask, we know it is you Ohashi," she spoke up and the clearing stilled at her words, and he could feel the tension was high.

Yet Minato hadn't missed the sudden flux in his chakra when Tsunade-sama had called him by that name, it had lasted for barely a second yet that told him something.

And then he saw the silver-haired shinobi, smirk as he raised his hand, reaching for his hair, which he pulled up, the bandage covering his eyes fell down as well, uncovering his eyes, one of which glinted red. And he could see it.

Though there were changes

"Then, I believe the masks are off, it has been a while, Tsunade-san," he answered. His voice had changed now, and this was the voice of Ohashi, Ohashi Hatake.

Yet the smirk on that face told him off a different shinobi. No matter the similarities, this was not the Ohashi he had gotten to know over the years.

"Ohh, so it is you, Hatake. Tell me how did you manage to obtain that eye, the eye of Madara Uchiha?" Orochimaru-san questioned as he stepped forward, his golden slits sharply focused on the silver-haired shinobi.

"This eye was a gift to me, a partying gift from the man who showed me the true reality of this world," Ohashi said as he opened his arms grandly.

"And now I shall accomplish what even Hashirama Senju failed to do. I shall correct his wrongs. The notion that the villages could cooperate was ludicrous. Three Wars we have fought in less than even a century, thousands lost to the idiotic dream of cooperation and cooperation!" he shouted, and then his eyes narrowed towards them.

"I shall abolish the current system and build a new order. One enforced through sheer force, just as it should have been, yet no matter, I shall correct the mistakes of the past," he said, and then Fugaku stepped forward.

"You are misguided, your mind beguiled by the ravings of a dying man. Yet this is the end for you. We shall put an end to you," said the Uchiha patriarch as his eyes shifted from their regular black to the iconic red of the Sharingan.

All four of them let go of their chakras, and the very ground cracked underneath their feet. The sheer force and pressure of their chakra were enough to make the very air crackle violently, yet Ohashi seemed unfazed as Minato felt his chakra shift.

"You believe that you have me trapped with you in this cage of yours, but you are wrong," he said, and Minato's eyes widened as Ohashi let go of his own chakra. It clashed violently with their chakra and didn't lose. The clash was so strong and violent enough that a storm began to brew right in the sealed formation.

One could see the ground begin to split where the two chakras met as Ohashi took a step forward, a storm of mist forming behind him.

"In truth, it is you who is trapped with me!"

And then he vanished into the mist, his chakra's presence vanishing as well, and the battle began.

0000

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This story will now return at the end of February.(Cuz of my finals which begin in a week.)

Wish me luck, because I am gonna need it. (My preparation is pretty shoddy)